Jan. 23 (UPI) — The owner of the Crescent Duck Farm in Aquebogue, N.Y., has been forced to euthanize its flock of more than 100,000 ducks due to positive bird flu tests.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service on Friday confirmed several positive tests for bird flu in the flock, the Suffolk County Department of Health announced on Tuesday.
“The risk to public health is minimal as the virus at this point is not transmissible among humans,” Suffolk County Health Commissioner Dr. Gregson Pigott said.
“A full investigation is underway because there is some potential for transmission of the H5N1 bird flu from the infected birds to individual farm workers who had high-risk exposures,” Pigott said.
None of the duck farm’s workers showed signs of illness, but local health department officials are interviewing and testing potentially exposed workers for H5N1 and providing them with preventive medications this week.
The Crescent Duck Farm is under quarantine while the testing is done and the farm undergoes depopulation, cleaning and disinfection procedures, which should take a little more than a week to accomplish, ABC News reported.
The bird flu has been detected in wild birds and poultry flocks in New York since 2022, and cows on dairy farms in several states have tested positive for H5N1 avian influenza since March 2024.
So far, no cases of bird flu in humans or cattle have been found in New York.
The duck farm is located about 66 miles west of New York City and is the last commercial duck farm on Long Island.
The owner of the 117-year-old poultry farm last week noticed signs of bird flu within the flock.
The Crescent Duck Farm is noted for its finely bred ducks that have evolved over several generations of breeding to grow ducks that have a lot of meat and relatively little fat.
Although there are other duck farms in the area, many restaurant owners prefer the ducks from the family-owned Crescent Duck Farm.
Owner Doug Corwin said the farm still has eggs laid prior to the bird flu outbreak, but it will take at least a year and likely longer for the duck farm to resume full operations.